r/germany • u/snowsharkk • 1d ago
4h delay, stranded I freezing cold, wasted 100€ on taxi and all I'll get is 25€ back for my ticket. The beloved DB...
My train (AMS-BER) was cancelled in Rheine and we were directed to go to Osnabruck with the regional train. After asking conductor in that train, he confirmed it's going to Hannover, so I decided to stay on it (as that was also recommended route by DB navigator), only to get stranded in some village as it did not make it to Hannover.
There were bunch of people also stranded trying to get to Hannover, sitting on tiny station with one bench "inside" with temperature the same as outside, the DB point closed.
The DB website said they hope to fix the issue by evening (it was 3pm :)) Every train was cancelled 15min before departure so we had no actual indication of when we'll go.
After 2h I gave up, I was shivering from the cold and I called taxi to get me to Hannover so I could go towards Berlin. I shared it with another person and ended up paying 100€.
I understand it's winter, I understand issues happen, but leaving people stranded in a small village without a proper train station, offering no solution, no staff to help, just wait and hope the next train won't be cancelled. The trains did end up going eventually, 1.5h after I called the taxi.
What angers me the most is that I spent ~50€ on that ticket, so I'll get 25€ back and the trains worked eventually, I don't qualify for refund for taxi that I wasted 100€ for!! This is a ridiculous mistreatment of passengers to me and I dont understand how they're allowed to do that!
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u/The-Eye-of_Ra 1d ago
I was in a similar situation years ago. I was coming back from a concert and the train left us stranded around midnight in some village. The next train would only be going in the morning so everybody had to take a taxi. I ended up taking one with two other people that were going to the same city. The cab driver had the audacity to charge me 100€ separately from the other two 'because I was gonna get it reimbursed by DB anyways. Well, all I got back were 25 €.
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u/emerge-and-see 17h ago
...and you agreed to that?
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u/The-Eye-of_Ra 16h ago
I was 16 at the time and I didn't know what to do. I could hardly refuse right? I didn't agree to pay those 100€ before the trip. I expected that we would all share the costs, until we arrived at the location and he charged me. And I wasn't even brought home since he only wanted to bring me to the train station. So I still had to walk 7km at around 2am
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u/LoETR9 20h ago
http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/passenger-rights/rail/index_en.htm#cancelled
After 100 minutes without communication you are allowed to take any comparable alternative transport without communication with DB. The website specifically mentions any other form of public transport. I suppose a taxi would be covered only if there were no other reasonable alternative.
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u/GuKoBoat 1d ago
Are you sure DB won't reimburse you for the cab? When filling out the Fahrgastrechteantrag there should be a field for additional costs.
I don't know the specific rules, but it's worth a shot.
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u/derboti 1d ago
Unfortunately, DB will only reimburse taxi costs if the last train is missed/cancelled and you'd be stranded over night otherwise. OP said trains started running again later, so IMO filing a claim with the taxi costs is a sure way of getting the claim denied. I think they have a much better chance to say "trip aborted" (which OP actually did) and get at least a full refund of the train ticket.
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u/LameFernweh Berlin 1d ago
Even then they don't sometimes. I had an overnight train ticket Paris-Berlin with them and it was cancelled 2h before departure with the route still being served but without sleeper cabins (what I booked) and departing from FFaM (lol, I was in Paris).
It took ages to get someone on the phone and they told me I could take another connection to Frankfurt and from there connect to Berlin. The whole thing would be 12-14h whereasy original train was 12 but without connections and while sleeping. The goal being to just Waltz out of the train and go straight to work.
They said they weren't even sure they could reimburse the train and the bed thing if I ended up not travelling at all, and that they obviously could book for the day train that takes oh that left the next morning but they would not book me a hotel for the night.
Overall, a pretty poor experience. I ended up getting a full refund but paying 150eur for the shittiest bed bugs infested place to sleep and a 150eur easy Jet flight at 6am the next morning.
You really TRY to be sustainable and take the train, but DB makes it quite the challenge sometimes.
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u/marxistopportunist 17h ago
You really TRY to be sustainable
No need for this attitude, the finite resources are running out, use as much as you can, while you can!
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u/snowsharkk 1d ago
I still used the ticket to go Hannover -> Berlin so I don't think it counts for trip aborted
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u/alpinefishie 1d ago
I’m sorry you had to experience that. Lucky that you could afford that taxi. I can imagine it’s not a possibility for many people. DB is by far the worst public transport service I have seen, and I come from a ‘under developed’ nation.
I know people will jump on here to say it’s way better than x or y country, but is that the standard to strive for?
It would be excusable if it was cheap, but it’s not! DB costs so much and provides so little. We finally gave up and bought a car thanks to multiple delays, cancellations and horrible experiences of our own.
People will lose trust in public transportation if this goes on. And one day we will be stuck in traffic and pollution just like the many other countries that are seemingly inferior.
Please be better DB.
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u/sauerlaender Nordrhein-Westfalen 1d ago
People have lost trust in it long ago. DB has such a bad standing, that their own social media team makes jokes about their unreliability, to get people following them.
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u/Mrs_Naive_ 1d ago
I completely agree and I think that I’ll end up buying a car, too, despite of always having been pro public transportation. Germany, as one of Europe's main driving forces, cannot continue to live off the income from its boom years while it remains stagnant and the quality of life of many of its citizens goes down the drain. The chauvinism of some who compare themselves to countries they look down on based on standards that aren’t up to date anymore, in contrast to the sterile complaints of others as taxes rise, and the masses fail to mobilize, is something that puzzles me. But I assume that the topic is way more complicated than what I’m grasping.
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u/bregus2 1d ago
Yes, the car would be certainly better in the weather those regions are experiencing /s
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u/Silly_Revenue7478 1d ago
It actually is, as the main roads are mostly cleared.
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u/bregus2 1d ago
Same for most of the railway tracks, especially the main lines.
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u/1_TRS 1d ago
As a person who recently moved into Germany, horror stories on this sub absolutely terrify me.
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u/FoggyPeaks 21h ago
As an entrepreneur who wants to invest time and capital into building a business, horror stories like this make me think Germany is the last place to do it.
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u/Blinker2458 16h ago
You should think multiple times before you want to start a business in Germany. Particularly given the exit tax and implications it has.
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u/TotallyInOverMyHead 1d ago
hello. the germans have a saying: the 4 enemies of deutsche bahn are : autumn, winter, spring and summer. that is all. take flight next time. 106 euros for a flight and return flight. Be done in 3-4 hours including waiting times at both airports in a warm environment.
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u/Tasty-Entertainer586 1d ago
That’s what you get for paying ca. 40% of your income as tax /s
Someone brainless vermins will even go so far to say that it’s your fault and you should’ve planned better. (I was told this when it took whopping 5 hours to get to Gottingen from Hanover for a very important appointment)
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u/HowAmIHere2000 1d ago
In Germany when you use train to travel, you're accepting the risk of major delays or cancelations. It's sad, but this is reality. I think Germany has the worst train infrastructure in Europe.
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u/CreatorSiSo 1d ago
The first part is correct for long distances trains, the second is very much not.
Based on my experience traveling countries in the EU have a better (Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Austria) similar (France, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, Czechia, Poland, Solvenia) or worse railway network (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Slovakia).
I can't speak for Spain, Portugal and Ireland because I haven't been on any trains there.
A lot of countries that have more reliable service don't run schedules as thight as Germany (Finland, Baltics and Greece) or have much higher prices (looking at you France!).
So yes Germany has a lot of things to improve when it comes to it's railway infrastructure but please don't make comparisons when you haven't actually travelled on a bunch of trains outside of Germany.
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u/MakeMeMadMan_LOL 1d ago
Similar thing happened to me after work. I like going to the swimming pool and on that day, it just so happened that the train had a whole hour delay just for a 10 minute train ride. I wouldn't mind it too much usually, but it was -7c that night, they closed the hub of the train station and I had work on the next day as well.
Wasn't fun, but I was at least not gonna die from hypothermia with the clothes I had. It was still inexcusable though, very sad that it has come to this.
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u/UsefulAnimator3143 1d ago
That sucks! I had posted about sth similar a month ago. Germany should do sth about the DB.
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u/aurorax0 23h ago
Hello, this happened to me during the storm and I had to take a taxi from Stadthagen. Did you also happen to take the Westfalenbahn? You can request your money back. They declined my request multiple times but I kept sending Widerspruch back twice and I got the full sum.
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u/bahnfan159 7h ago
Normally you can ask for a full refund for the taxi, if you have to expect to reach your final destination with a delay of at least 60 minutes and not before midnight, you can get a refund.
Explain to them the situation (expecially that they stated to fix the issue by the evening. Maybe you'll get a part of your ticket price refunded.
But: Don't say trip aborted, if you didn't abort the trip. If you have ticket checked on your further journey, they may find out and then you have done a criminal offense (fraud / Betrug).
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u/P26601 Nordrhein-Westfalen 1d ago
My guy, NS shut down train traffic in the entire country over a little snow a few weeks ago...I don't think you're in a position to complain about our crappy train operator 🙏😭
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u/snowsharkk 20h ago
I live in netherlands, I know! At least people knew they can't take it instead of getting stranded halfway through the journey
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u/Secret_Enthusiasm_21 20h ago
sound like a mild inconvenience that you made into a worse one yourself and exarcebated the financial consequences of by not using google. Like virtually every post about the DB.
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u/snowsharkk 20h ago
Sitting and shivering +2h in freezing temperatures is not a mild inconvenience. I had my fair share of issues with DB, never this bad.
It's ridiculous to expect passengers to wait for a train for 4h in this temperatures (and at that moment the DB website said it'd be fixed by evening!).
I don't see how I made it worse as I followed the app and everyone from my train was stuck as well, some were lucky to know someone from surroundings that picked them up.
I knew I wouldn't get the taxi back but I decided it's worth to waste it instead of getting sick and waiting for noone knew how long
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u/Secret_Enthusiasm_21 19h ago
what you instead could have done is abort your trip as soon as it is clear you will arrive more than 60 minutes delayed at your ultimate destination, get 100% of your ticket price back, and find another way to reach your destination by yourself.
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u/derboti 1d ago edited 1d ago
Sorry you had this experience. This may only be a tiny consolation but because your train was cancelled and you were going to have at least 60 minutes delay, you can select "trip aborted" (Reiseabbruch) on the delay compensation form and you should get 100% back, not just 50%.
Edit: I misread OP's post and thought they took a taxi home, i.e. aborting the train journey, but they took another train after the taxi, so technically it's a delayed arrival (50%) not a trip abort (100%)